IAGO Not this hour, lieutenant; 'tis not yet ten o' theclock. Our general cast us thus early for the loveof his Desdemona; who let us not therefore blame:he hath not yet made wanton the night with her; andshe is sport for Jove.

CASSIO She's a most exquisite lady.

IAGO And, I'll warrant her, fun of game.

CASSIO Indeed, she's a most fresh and delicate creature.

IAGO What an eye she has! methinks it sounds a parley ofprovocation.

CASSIO An inviting eye; and yet methinks right modest.

IAGO And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to love?

CASSIO She is indeed perfection.

IAGO Well, happiness to their sheets! Come, lieutenant, Ihave a stoup of wine; and here without are a braceof Cyprus gallants that would fain have a measure tothe health of black Othello.

CASSIO Not to-night, good Iago: I have very poor andunhappy brains for drinking: I could well wishcourtesy would invent some other custom ofentertainment.

IAGO O, they are our friends; but one cup: I'll drink foryou.

CASSIO I have drunk but one cup to-night, and that wascraftily qualified too, and, behold, what innovationit makes here: I am unfortunate in the infirmity,and dare not task my weakness with any more.

IAGO What, man! 'tis a night of revels: the gallantsdesire it.

CASSIO Where are they?

IAGO Here at the door; I pray you, call them in.

CASSIO I'll do't; but it dislikes me.

Exit

IAGO If I can fasten but one cup upon him,With that which he hath drunk to-night already,He'll be as full of quarrel and offenceAs my young mistress' dog. Now, my sick fool Roderigo,Whom love hath turn'd almost the wrong side out,To Desdemona hath to-night carousedPotations pottle-deep; and he's to watch:Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits,That hold their honours in a wary distance,The very elements of this warlike isle,Have I to-night fluster'd with flowing cups,And they watch too. Now, 'mongst this flock of drunkards,Am I to put our Cassio in some actionThat may offend the isle.--But here they come:If consequence do but approve my dream,My boat sails freely, both with wind and stream.

Re-enter CASSIO; with him MONTANO and Gentlemen; servants following with wine

IAGO Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane deaddrunk; he sweats not to overthrow your Almain; hegives your Hollander a vomit, ere the next pottlecan be filled.

CASSIO To the health of our general!

MONTANO I am for it, lieutenant; and I'll do you justice.

IAGO O sweet England!King Stephen was a worthy peer,His breeches cost him but a crown;He held them sixpence all too dear,With that he call'd the tailor lown.He was a wight of high renown,And thou art but of low degree:'Tis pride that pulls the country down;Then take thine auld cloak about thee.Some wine, ho!

CASSIO Why, this is a more exquisite song than the other.

IAGO Will you hear't again?

CASSIO No; for I hold him to be unworthy of his place thatdoes those things. Well, God's above all; and therebe souls must be saved, and there be souls must not be saved.

IAGO It's true, good lieutenant.

CASSIO For mine own part,--no offence to the general, norany man of quality,--I hope to be saved.

IAGO And so do I too, lieutenant.

CASSIO Ay, but, by your leave, not before me; thelieutenant is to be saved before the ancient. Let'shave no more of this; let's to our affairs.--Forgiveus our sins!--Gentlemen, let's look to our business.Do not think, gentlemen. I am drunk: this is myancient; this is my right hand, and this is my left:I am not drunk now; I can stand well enough, andspeak well enough.

All Excellent well.

CASSIO Why, very well then; you must not think then that I am drunk.

Exit

MONTANO To the platform, masters; come, let's set the watch.

IAGO You see this fellow that is gone before;He is a soldier fit to stand by CaesarAnd give direction: and do but see his vice;'Tis to his virtue a just equinox,The one as long as the other: 'tis pity of him.I fear the trust Othello puts him in.On some odd time of his infirmity,Will shake this island.

MONTANO But is he often thus?

IAGO 'Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep:He'll watch the horologe a double set,If drink rock not his cradle.

MONTANO It were wellThe general were put in mind of it.Perhaps he sees it not; or his good naturePrizes the virtue that appears in Cassio,And looks not on his evils: is not this true?

Enter RODERIGO

IAGO [Aside to him] How now, Roderigo!I pray you, after the lieutenant; go.

Exit RODERIGO

MONTANO And 'tis great pity that the noble MoorShould hazard such a place as his own secondWith one of an ingraft infirmity:It were an honest action to saySo to the Moor.

IAGO Not I, for this fair island:I do love Cassio well; and would do muchTo cure him of this evil--But, hark! what noise?

Who's that which rings the bell?--Diablo, ho!The town will rise: God's will, lieutenant, hold!You will be shamed for ever.

Re-enter OTHELLO and Attendants

OTHELLO What is the matter here?

MONTANO 'Zounds, I bleed still; I am hurt to the death.

Faints

OTHELLO Hold, for your lives!

IAGO Hold, ho! Lieutenant,--sir--Montano,--gentlemen,--Have you forgot all sense of place and duty?Hold! the general speaks to you; hold, hold, for shame!

OTHELLO Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth this?Are we turn'd Turks, and to ourselves do thatWhich heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl:He that stirs next to carve for his own rageHolds his soul light; he dies upon his motion.Silence that dreadful bell: it frights the isleFrom her propriety. What is the matter, masters?Honest Iago, that look'st dead with grieving,Speak, who began this? on thy love, I charge thee.

IAGO I do not know: friends all but now, even now,In quarter, and in terms like bride and groomDevesting them for bed; and then, but now--As if some planet had unwitted men--Swords out, and tilting one at other's breast,In opposition bloody. I cannot speakAny beginning to this peevish odds;And would in action glorious I had lostThose legs that brought me to a part of it!

OTHELLO How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot?

CASSIO I pray you, pardon me; I cannot speak.

OTHELLO Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil;The gravity and stillness of your youthThe world hath noted, and your name is greatIn mouths of wisest censure: what's the matter,That you unlace your reputation thusAnd spend your rich opinion for the nameOf a night-brawler? give me answer to it.

MONTANO Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger:Your officer, Iago, can inform you,--While I spare speech, which something nowoffends me,--Of all that I do know: nor know I aughtBy me that's said or done amiss this night;Unless self-charity be sometimes a vice,And to defend ourselves it be a sinWhen violence assails us.

OTHELLO Now, by heaven,My blood begins my safer guides to rule;And passion, having my best judgment collied,Assays to lead the way: if I once stir,Or do but lift this arm, the best of youShall sink in my rebuke. Give me to knowHow this foul rout began, who set it on;And he that is approved in this offence,Though he had twinn'd with me, both at a birth,Shall lose me. What! in a town of war,Yet wild, the people's hearts brimful of fear,To manage private and domestic quarrel,In night, and on the court and guard of safety!'Tis monstrous. Iago, who began't?

MONTANO If partially affined, or leagued in office,Thou dost deliver more or less than truth,Thou art no soldier.

IAGO Touch me not so near:I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouthThan it should do offence to Michael Cassio;Yet, I persuade myself, to speak the truthShall nothing wrong him. Thus it is, general.Montano and myself being in speech,There comes a fellow crying out for help:And Cassio following him with determined sword,To execute upon him. Sir, this gentlemanSteps in to Cassio, and entreats his pause:Myself the crying fellow did pursue,Lest by his clamour--as it so fell out--The town might fall in fright: he, swift of foot,Outran my purpose; and I return'd the ratherFor that I heard the clink and fall of swords,And Cassio high in oath; which till to-nightI ne'er might say before. When I came back--For this was brief--I found them close together,At blow and thrust; even as again they wereWhen you yourself did part them.More of this matter cannot I report:But men are men; the best sometimes forget:Though Cassio did some little wrong to him,As men in rage strike those that wish them best,Yet surely Cassio, I believe, receivedFrom him that fled some strange indignity,Which patience could not pass.

OTHELLO I know, Iago,Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love theeBut never more be officer of mine.

Re-enter DESDEMONA, attended

Look, if my gentle love be not raised up!I'll make thee an example.

DESDEMONA What's the matter?

OTHELLO All's well now, sweeting; come away to bed.Sir, for your hurts, myself will be your surgeon:Lead him off.

To MONTANO, who is led off

Iago, look with care about the town,And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted.Come, Desdemona: 'tis the soldiers' lifeTo have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.

Exeunt all but IAGO and CASSIO

IAGO What, are you hurt, lieutenant?

CASSIO Ay, past all surgery.

IAGO Marry, heaven forbid!

CASSIO Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lostmy reputation! I have lost the immortal part ofmyself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation,Iago, my reputation!

IAGO As I am an honest man, I thought you had receivedsome bodily wound; there is more sense in that thanin reputation. Reputation is an idle and most falseimposition: oft got without merit, and lost withoutdeserving: you have lost no reputation at all,unless you repute yourself such a loser. What, man!there are ways to recover the general again: youare but now cast in his mood, a punishment more inpolicy than in malice, even so as one would beat hisoffenceless dog to affright an imperious lion: sueto him again, and he's yours.

CASSIO I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive sogood a commander with so slight, so drunken, and soindiscreet an officer. Drunk? and speak parrot?and squabble? swagger? swear? and discoursefustian with one's own shadow? O thou invisiblespirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by,let us call thee devil!

IAGO What was he that you followed with your sword? Whathad he done to you?

CASSIO I know not.

IAGO Is't possible?

CASSIO I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly;a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O God, that menshould put an enemy in their mouths to steal awaytheir brains! that we should, with joy, pleasancerevel and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!

IAGO Why, but you are now well enough: how came you thusrecovered?

CASSIO It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give placeto the devil wrath; one unperfectness shows meanother, to make me frankly despise myself.

IAGO Come, you are too severe a moraler: as the time,the place, and the condition of this countrystands, I could heartily wish this had not befallen;but, since it is as it is, mend it for your own good.

CASSIO I will ask him for my place again; he shall tell meI am a drunkard! Had I as many mouths as Hydra,such an answer would stop them all. To be now asensible man, by and by a fool, and presently abeast! O strange! Every inordinate cup isunblessed and the ingredient is a devil.

IAGO Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature,if it be well used: exclaim no more against it.And, good lieutenant, I think you think I love you.

CASSIO I have well approved it, sir. I drunk!

IAGO You or any man living may be drunk! at a time, man.I'll tell you what you shall do. Our general's wifeis now the general: may say so in this respect, forthat he hath devoted and given up himself to thecontemplation, mark, and denotement of her parts andgraces: confess yourself freely to her; importuneher help to put you in your place again: she is ofso free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition,she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do morethan she is requested: this broken joint betweenyou and her husband entreat her to splinter; and, myfortunes against any lay worth naming, thiscrack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before.

CASSIO You advise me well.

IAGO I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest kindness.

CASSIO I think it freely; and betimes in the morning I willbeseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me:I am desperate of my fortunes if they cheque me here.

IAGO You are in the right. Good night, lieutenant; Imust to the watch.CASSIO: Good night, honest Iago.

Exit

IAGO And what's he then that says I play the villain?When this advice is free I give and honest,Probal to thinking and indeed the courseTo win the Moor again? For 'tis most easyThe inclining Desdemona to subdueIn any honest suit: she's framed as fruitfulAs the free elements. And then for herTo win the Moor--were't to renounce his baptism,All seals and symbols of redeemed sin,His soul is so enfetter'd to her love,That she may make, unmake, do what she list,Even as her appetite shall play the godWith his weak function. How am I then a villainTo counsel Cassio to this parallel course,Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!When devils will the blackest sins put on,They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,As I do now: for whiles this honest foolPlies Desdemona to repair his fortunesAnd she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,I'll pour this pestilence into his ear,That she repeals him for her body's lust;And by how much she strives to do him good,She shall undo her credit with the Moor.So will I turn her virtue into pitch,And out of her own goodness make the netThat shall enmesh them all.

Re-enter RODERIGO

How now, Roderigo!

RODERIGO I do follow here in the chase, not like a hound thathunts, but one that fills up the cry. My money isalmost spent; I have been to-night exceedingly wellcudgelled; and I think the issue will be, I shallhave so much experience for my pains, and so, withno money at all and a little more wit, return again to Venice.

IAGO How poor are they that have not patience!What wound did ever heal but by degrees?Thou know'st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft;And wit depends on dilatory time.Does't not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee.And thou, by that small hurt, hast cashier'd Cassio:Though other things grow fair against the sun,Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe:Content thyself awhile. By the mass, 'tis morning;Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.Retire thee; go where thou art billeted:Away, I say; thou shalt know more hereafter:Nay, get thee gone.

Exit RODERIGO

Two things are to be done:My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress;I'll set her on;Myself the while to draw the Moor apart,And bring him jump when he may Cassio findSoliciting his wife: ay, that's the wayDull not device by coldness and delay.